I am on the 2012 Blade Triggers.....7M, 10M and 14m for light wind.
Also had 2010 Triggers, which were pretty great, the new kites are better!!
They have the standard bridle attachment location, but also this year they added a wave bridle attachment point that adds more depower and moves the kite further forward in the window. The bridle is a pretty standard ladder bridle in front with one pulley on each side. Direct connect for the steering lines and a fast and slow attachment point on the wingtips.
Triggers are fast turners with a fast forward airspeed as well.
Very stable, a gust eater, powerful low end, and good range in high wind.
They jump really well with great boost and lots of float.
Easy to jump with a large margin for error.
These medium aspect three strut kites can be great when well designed, and the Triggers are a nice refined design.
Construction is good, not as bulletproof as a few kite brands (Ocean Rodeo for instance) but better built than lots.
The Blade bar safety releases to a single front line, so it is safe, it is well built and functions properly. The lines are sourced from the same company that most of the top brands use now.
I prefer a bar that releases to a mini fifth on both front lines though, but that is just a personal choice. There are some bars that are popular as great bars, the North bar for instance but the Blade bar is surely not a deal killer.

The bar is sub-par if you think SS, North, etc.. On the bright side things that tend to wear are easily replaceble without having to revert to Blade original parts, always a good thing.

The bar itself got a good length and diameter at least for me, not the super thin flexifoil bar good for women and kids.

The bar itself is not perfectly rounded but has some grooves for your fingers. Some people like, others don't. I don't.

The grip is ´some mm´ EVA that tend to wear too easily, mainly near the hole of the depower rope and in the grooves area.

The plastic parts in the end of the bar look and feel cheap, think low cost mobile phone kind a plastic.

The safety mechanism uses the same cheap plastics and works based on pressure - un-click to actuate it, click-it to close it. In my personal opinion it requires too much effort & had a bad experience with it - was not able to activate the security while being drag in (or under) the water/waves; as it was the first time I was with this release I put it under the "un-experience" column.

Swivel mechanism is located bellow bar, made of…you guess it right - same cheap plastic and "smooth" or "design excelence" are not words I would use to describe it. At least Blade did not tried to convince us that an above the de-power swivel would work. It requires un-twist to be done manually and in the end it works.

De-power is done through some straps that run through some plastic locking mechanism. With time this will wear - the plastic, not the straps.

The total length of the lines is like 22 m or something, but the lines it-self are only ~15m. The first 3 to 4m are dynema rope. This is a plus as all the wear of rotations and etc. will be done on the dynema that could be easily replaced with a few euros.

The chicken loop is a small size hollow rubber tube around dynema without any auto-center for un-hook/hook-back-in. Check the dynema in the loop as it will wear and due to be replaced from time to time.

The Y on the lines is way high around 4 to 5m from the bar. I find self-landing with this set-up + difficult than if the Y would be near the de-power straps.

The de-power rope is easily replaceble once you get some dynema (impossible with the flexi bars where you need to shed a couple of Euros in a original part), a plus.

The trigger is really a plug and play kite. Better - plug and have instantaneous fun kite.

Performance wise a very, very good kite for the average Joe as I am.

In the meantime I heard Blade will release soon a new bar called pro-bar or something. I hope they will do it together with Epic in order to keep volume high and price down, although I suspect price will increase.

Lol the bar is not that bad. Plastic might look a bit cheap and not so shiny but it is quite strong and durable IMO. The QR needs quite some force to release, which is not a problem for me, but might be a problem for weaker rider or girls. At least it is very simple and also works when filled with sand. (Tested it and didn't noticed any increase in force need to open it. though the swivel is much harder to spin.)
The biggest problem i have (had) with the bar is no auto lock of CL to the bar hole when unhooking and swivel rotating itself when unhooked. Very annoying when trying to hook back in and cl is rotated 90°.

The quick release is actually very easy to use, I myself had a bad crash and had to push the release to save myself from injury and it is no problem. If you want the bar to release it releases. Its not going to randomly release with next to no pressure.. If you can sheet in the bar you can push the quick release imo.

Never had a problem with any of my blade kites in 2011 with my 10,12,17 or in 2012 so far on the 7,9,12, or 17/

Kite build is top notch and competes with the other big name kites on the market. The trigger in my opinion performs better in my hands then any other big name kites I have tried as its a kite that can pretty much do anything and do it very well.

There are a couple people on the forums bashing the plastics on the bar but be assured they are not cheap weak plastic! they are made of a very strong material and I have complete trust in that bar it has never failed me and I have taken it up to 50-60mphs.

Definatly recomend to anyone looking for new kites to take blade for a demo because your going to like them.

no, never had blades and don´t even know to kite surf, just trolling here and there. The description of the blade bar i just made them up as i was writing.

My German is a bit limited to "telefunken" and "volkswagen" but pretty sure the guys bellow are saying something about the quick-release pressure along the lines of what was said. Not that i care.

Glad you think the kites quality are top notch, i think they are about average. As a matter of fact I think theirs relatively fragility helps tons in making them so fun to fly, in particular in the bigger sizes.

Glad your kites are in prime conditions, I got different wear and tear events with the Blades as with any other kites i´ve owned. My bad, need to learn how to ride better.

At least we agree they are fun kites & also would strongly recommend the Triggers to people.

But they are not the last women on heart and I would not describe them as such, too much of this crap around here.

Blade is new to the NW and we are pretty darn stoked to be flying these Triggers and Primes.
The Trigger has an exciting "edginess" to it, precision control, quick turning and huge traction.
The lightness of the kite is something you can really feel.
You won't be dissapointed

BellinghamKite wrote:Small Kite action from today.

Featuring me, and Andrew Olive.

I have to say that I am super impressed with the Trigger 5m. It had surprisingly good low end, as well as stability in the upper end.

One thing that is unique about the 5m, is that once you jump, it doesn't just drop you like other small kites. Both Andrew and I had decent sized air on the 5m (20ft+) and our landings were soft and smooth. Never have I experienced that with such a small kite.

In the gusts, the kite held its shape and rocketed upwind.

I also got to try the 7m Prime today for the first time well powered. I hit its top end when smoke was starting to appear on the water, and this kite jumped suprisingly well.

I have pulled the safety enough times on the Blade bar, it works consistently.
Not hard to use. Built well enough. Not as plush as some of the really expensive premier bars.
It's also much lighter than the boat anchor Slingshot, for instance, and less expensive.
There are bars that are better and there are bars that are worse. This one comes in somewhere in the middle of the pack.